Page "Joop den Uyl" Paragraph 12

Between 1973 and 1977, the country's economic situation turned ugly.

The government's budget deficit increased tenfold, inflation approached 10 percent, the unemployment rate doubled, and the current account went from positive to negative – the latter a critical problem in a country that rises or falls on foreign trade.

Despite economic difficulties, however, the government was able to enact a wide range of progressive social reforms, such as significant increases in welfare payments and the indexation of benefits and the minimum wage to the cost of living.